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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-9-12

Day 69
3 Why is the illusion of many necessary? Only because reality is not understandable to the deluded. Only very few can hear God’s Voice at all, and even they cannot communicate His messages directly through the Spirit which gave them. They need a medium through which communication becomes possible to those who do not realize that they are spirit. A body they can see. A voice they understand and listen to, without the fear that truth would encounter in them. Do not forget that truth can come only where it is welcomed without fear. So do God’s teachers need a body, for their unity could not be recognized directly.

I can understand that we need to hear the words from a voice that appears to be in the dream with us. I hear the Voice for God in my mind daily and yet, at times I still have trouble crediting it. I sometimes have trouble discerning which is His Voice and which is my own ego voice. When I think about that, its funny. How could I mistake the ego for God? And usually when I gain clarity I see that it was not that the two voices were so similar I could not tell them apart, but that I favored the ego story and didn’t want it to be wrong.

When I discovered the writings of Eckert Tolle I was very excited because it was my first encounter with a present day awakened being. It was confirmation that as hard as it seems to me, maybe it really is possible. The first time I read A Thousand Names for Joy and realized that Byron Katie is awakened, my heart swelled with joy because not only is she living now, but she is a woman and so I related to her in a more immediate way. She is a woman who had a real story full of drama and mistakes just like me, and yet, she did awaken.

These people are helpful also because they speak my language and have similar backgrounds. I can understand them, and feel our paths are not so different that I can’t possibly go where they went. Jesus lived a real life, too, but it was so long ago and has been changed through time to make him seem too special for me to relate to. So while I love him and appreciate him, I cannot think of him as just one of us. (What is that song, “What if God were just one us…”)?

I think we need different voices speaking to us of the truth, and speaking in different ways. What I can understand and relate to might not be useful to another person. Even though they are saying the same thing, they are saying it in different ways and that is helpful. My friend, Alisha, has found her path with the help of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Sonja is finding help through Joel Goldsmith. Lisa is inspired by Mooji (who also touches me). The truth seems to be coming through in many ways, but it is still the one truth coming through the one awakened mind. It only appears different.

And do we have to be fully and permanently awakened to be a teacher of God? Obviously not since Jesus has told us that the way to awaken is to teach what we want to learn. It seems from the story of her life and the people who knew her that Helen was certain of her purpose only when she was scribing the Course. Regina is not awakened as far as I know, and yet she has been my principle teacher for a long time now. She allowed NTI and The Teachings of Inner Ramana to come through her, and when she did she was in her one purpose.

I teach truth when my mind is clear, that is when I know my purpose and all other imagined purposes have fallen away. Probably we all are teachers of that order sometimes, and what we are doing now is learning to stay in that truth more and more so that we can be the teachers of God we are meant to be. 

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-8-12

Day 68

2 Thus does the son of man become the Son of God. It is not really a change; it is a change of mind. Nothing external alters, but everything internal now reflects only the Love of God. God can no longer be feared, for the mind sees no cause for punishment. God’s teachers appear to be many, for that is what is the world’s need. Yet being joined in one purpose, and one they share with God, how could they be separate from each other? What does it matter if they then appear in many forms? Their minds are one; their joining is complete. And God works through them now as one, for that is what they are.

Ah, now I understand how there is only one Teacher needed, when there seems to be many. As we wake up, we remember our wholeness and we remember our purpose, and so we know that we are one. We still appear to be separate entities, but we know that this is just an illusion that is helpful in the moment.

The Holy Spirit is a bridge between God and His sleeping Son. The Holy Spirit sees what we see, but does not believe it. In this way He can help us make the transition from the ego mind we believe we are to the whole mind we truly are. When I ask Him for help it feels like He is saying, “Yes, I understand how you feel. Let me tell you what is really happening.”

What Jesus is telling me here in this paragraph makes me think the aware Teacher reflects the Holy Spirit’s function.  I don’t remember what it is like to be awake so I can only speak from what I have read and what I feel, but I think it is something like this. The advanced Teacher of God seems to the rest of us to be in the world, in a body, sharing the same experiences that we are having. But this Teacher only seems to be the same as before. Her experience is very different. She sees the world we see but, like the Holy Spirit, is not fooled by the illusion. She has one function, one purpose that she shares with all and with God.

The difference between me and the one who is living awake is that I now often know my one purpose, but I also think I have other purposes. This dualism starts when I wake up. Because I travel in my work and often spend the night in a different hotel in a different city, I usually open my eyes and look around to situate myself in a place in time and space. Oh, I’m in a hotel room this morning. Yes, I’m in Alexandria. It’s Thursday, this means I will probably finish my rounds and go home tonight. I then remind myself that I have some writing to do and some posting so I had better find some coffee.

Just in that brief moment on awakening, I have established myself as a separate person with unique circumstances and needs. I have fulfilled my need to find the point in time and space which is different from anyone else’s on the planet. It is my purpose to occupy this space, to do the things I do, to see the people I see.

It is my purpose to visit customers and keep them bound to me so they don’t buy from someone else. It is my purpose to navigate the roads in such a way as to keep a bubble of separation around my car so that no one else tries to occupy my space at the same time I am in it. It is my purpose to eat healthy foods today and it also seems to be my purpose to often fail in this.

It is my purpose to seek comfort in knowing I am not entirely alone in my little bubble of existence by getting as close as I can (without invading their space) to certain other people. It is my purpose to defend my self in a thousand little ways all day long. Recently, it has become my purpose to remember that I have only one true purpose and to let the others go as accept that they have no value.

Just writing this makes me tired. It is a lonely existence even when surrounded by other people. It is lonely because we each have our own purposes and mostly these purposes are about defending our little point in time and space from other people. I hear the discordant voices. “Leave my customer alone. Leave my husband/wife alone. Leave my child alone. This is my house, what are you doing in it? My money, my food, my clothes. I win, you lose.”

It makes me sad that I still feel attached to this world of separation. I have tasted the truth and long for more and yet here I am, even before I lift my head from the pillow, deciding which purpose is the most urgent. I don’t know why I even wonder, coffee is going to win every time. ~smile~

Since I still sleep-walk through the world I can only guess at this next part, but I imagine that from an awakened awareness I will still do most of the things I do now, but I will not do them from a sense of purpose. Work will be what I do, not my purpose. I will drink coffee, or not, because it is there, not from a desperate need of caffeine to jump start my brain.

I will visit customers for the pure joy of it rather than for the purpose of protecting my territory. Things and people will be in my life and then will leave and the next things will appear only to disappear and I will be happy each time. There will be no sense of loss, because it is not my purpose to bring them into my world, nor my purpose to keep them in my world. I won’t spend my every waking moment planning the next moment because I will be directed, lived through, by something outside the self. I will have let go of attachment to everything that is not my one purpose.

These are my thoughts about living awake. And if I am wrong, that’s okay too. I know that in spite of my resistance, I am meant to be a teacher of God. I have one purpose that I sometimes forget, but I do have that one purpose, and I share that purpose with All That Is. I am ever so slowly letting go of attachment to all other purposes. Holy Spirit, please help me today to choose consistently for God. I give You all the willingness I have.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-7-12

Day 67
12. HOW MANY TEACHERS OF GOD ARE NEEDED TO SAVE THE WORLD?

1 The answer to this question is-one. One wholly perfect teacher, whose learning is complete, suffices. This one, sanctified and redeemed, becomes the Self Who is the Son of God. He who was always wholly spirit now no longer sees himself as a body, or even as in a body. Therefore he is limitless. And being limitless, his thoughts are joined with God’s forever and ever. His perception of himself is based upon God’s judgment, not his own. Thus does he share God’s Will, and bring His Thoughts to still deluded minds. He is forever one, because he is as God created him. He has accepted Christ; and he is saved.

Before I began this section, I read through it. I am so excited to see what Jesus brings me in understanding as I do each paragraph!

I read this paragraph again and I felt my heart swell as I recognized it as both truth and possible. I can be that one wholly perfect teacher. I can be the Teacher who carries the message. I can put aside my own judgment and accept only God’s. I can be limitless. I can accept Christ.

Immediately, the ego drags me back to earth and tries to bind me to its reality. It says that I cannot be this and it is arrogant to think so; more than arrogant, sinful. It reminded me of all the millions of false beliefs and judgments that are still fixed in my mind. What about those, it asks. It will take many lifetimes to undo all of that. What about all the errors from the past, some of which are awful, mortal sins. How could such a person stained with guilt be the One Self who is savior to all?

The ego is so very frightened of awakening. It is deathly afraid of God. I remind myself that I am not that, though I mostly believe I am exactly that. Holy Spirit, I am willing to turn my eyes from the ego vision of self, and fix them purposefully and determinedly on the Truth, but I need Your help. That scary picture of my self the ego shows me seems more real to me than the one You offer.

But even when I look to the body and its personality in fear that this is all I am, I cannot really believe that either, and there goes my heart, soaring again at the thought of being one with All that Is! Hah! I may not be ready just yet to accept my place among God’s advanced Teachers, but I am never going to be able to believe that I am truly ego either. I seem to be in neither Heaven nor Hell. Perhaps there is a purgatory after all.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-6-12

Day 66

4 Peace is impossible to those who look on war. Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace. How easily, then, is your judgment of the world escaped! It is not the world that makes peace seem impossible. It is the world you see that is impossible. Yet has God’s Judgment on this distorted world redeemed it and made it fit to welcome peace. And peace descends on it in joyous answer. Peace now belongs here, because a Thought of God has entered. What else but a Thought of God turns hell to Heaven merely by being what it is? The earth bows down before its gracious Presence, and it leans down in answer, to raise it up again. Now is the question different. It is no longer, “Can peace be possible in this world?” but instead, “Is it not impossible that peace be absent here?”

I loved yesterday, and not because great things happened. Actually it was the usual mixed bag, but no matter what the appearance, I remembered the truth. I would notice a loss of peace and would remind myself that peace is possible in every circumstance. I would remember to disregard the appearance.

A really helpful reminder came through my friend, Deborah, as we were doing a course together. Remember the lesson that says,” I think I am _______. But my mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.” This was part of the course and it stuck with me all during the day. Here is an example that occurred at the end of the day.

It was getting near 4:00 and I realized that I was going to have to drive part way to my morning destination if I were to get everything done the next day. I could drive about half-way there which would take two and a half hours. So I left the office and went home to pack. There were a couple things to take care of before I left and with that and the packing, I started getting anxious about the time. I had been tired during the day and now was more tired. It was dark and I don’t have good night vision and that was a concern, too.

I noticed the anxiety and stopped a moment to check in with Holy Spirit. I said to myself, “I am late. I am tired. I am uncomfortable driving at night. But my mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.” My heart leapt with joy at the memory. I can’t be tired or late or fearful of night driving. My mind is part of God’s and these things cannot be part of him, so they cannot be part of me. I can simply disregard the appearance of these things in my life because they cannot possibly be true.

In peace, I continued to gather my things and to do the little chores that had to be done. Time continued to pass and I continued to be undisturbed even though it was now thirty minutes past my original goal for leaving. And that turned out to be a blessing. In my rush to get going, I had forgotten I had a couple coming by to discuss their wedding.

When they got to the house I was surprised, and I was grateful that while I had forgotten, the Holy Spirit had not. I was also calm and happy which I would not have been had I continued being worried and fretful about the time. We had a wonderful visit and without anxiety taking up space in my mind, I was able to be there fully for them.

As we spoke they decided to do the ceremony right then and there rather than wait. They realized, I think, that it was the only way they were going to keep it simple and uncomplicated. I like to have time to plan and design just the right ceremony for my couples, and this could have thrown me, but tonight I was in perfect peace. I trusted that whatever I said was the perfect thing to say and needed no planning.

They were very happy with the wedding and said it was just exactly what they had hoped for. When it came time for them to pay me, I offered to take half my fee because it was so little work for me, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They said it was too precious to them and insisted on writing a check for the full amount. I was grateful to the Holy Spirit who guided me through the whole process, and was not unaware of how different this would have all turned out if I had been in a fearful, anxious state.

Now it was a great deal later than I had planned to leave and I considered not going but when I thought about it, I realized that was not an option. Those conflicting thoughts - I don’t want to go/I must go – are the war in my mind that Jesus talks about. And with that war, the tiredness set in again. Then I remembered that this need not be. My mind is part of God’s. Is there loss of energy and loss of clarity in God’s Mind? Then that cannot be true for me either. Those feelings must be an illusion.  I drove and I felt alert and very peaceful and happy the whole way. Thank you, God! I love you, God.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-5-12

Day 65

3 The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you have made. These problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those who believe in them. And everyone believes in what he made, for it was made by his believing it. Into this strange and paradoxical situation,—one without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems possible,—God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. Gently His Judgment substitutes for yours. And through this substitution is the un-understandable made understandable. How is peace possible in this world? In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. But in the Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace.

If what I believe is true for me, and I believe that peace is not possible then the first thing I want to do is to let God’s word substitute for mine. He says peace is possible therefore it is. I am fully ready to accept God’s judgment of this. I may have trouble doing the rest, but I accept that peace is possible regardless of the appearance of things.

The next step is to accept God’s judgments in place of mine. First I would have to be aware of my problems and willing to look with Holy Spirit at my judgments, then allow new thoughts about them to take their place in my mind. When we get down to specifics like that I notice that it is sometimes harder. After all, the reason I have these problems is because I believe in them, and now I will be asked to see them as meaningless. This may sometimes require a significant shift in my thinking.

For instance, when I lost a large customer and at the same time was threatened by the loss of another, I knew that I could see peace instead of the panic that was in my mind. But I was having trouble letting go of my belief that this was a real problem. The solution seemed to be out of my hands, while the boss still expected a solution, or at least someone to accept the blame. It seemed such an impossible situation that I didn’t see how I could have peace. Every time I reminded myself that I could see peace instead of this the ego showed me another objection to peace.

What Holy Spirit was finally able to help me see is that I was trying to find peace within the situation. I was trying to find a way to change what was happening so that I could be peaceful, and when I couldn’t change it, I thought I couldn’t be peaceful. I knew I was making a mistake but my mind was so confused that I couldn’t figure out what the mistake was. But I did continue to ask for help, and my consistent desire for correction finally out-weighed my desire to judge what was happening.

As soon as I stopped trying to fix the situation and instead let go of what I thought the situation meant, I felt the peace of God flood me. I gave it words later, or maybe the Holy Spirit gave me words because I still need them, but the peace was simply there. I only needed to stop what I was doing in order to have the peace of God.

The other kind of judgment I deal with is the habitual ones. They don’t necessarily come with a lot of drama, but are simply there in what seems small, and often insignificant, problems, and there are lots of those judgments. The mistake I make is to think that because they don’t upset me as much that they are not important, but all forms of judgment on my part must be let go if I am to have peace.

I see a person at the store act rudely and there is an instant judgment. I am for a moment out of peace as I believe she is guilty and I am her victim. I have just taught the mind that we are separate, we are guilty and we are victims. This is not the way to peace, and I do this sort of thing many times a day. But now that I am more aware, I see what is happening and this gives me many opportunities to choose differently. Each time I notice I practice my willingness to let go of my judgment so that God can give me His judgment instead and with it, His peace.

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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-4-12

Day 64

2 Again we come to the question of judgment. This time ask yourself whether your judgment or the Word of God is more likely to be true. For they say different things about the world, and things so opposite that it is pointless to try to reconcile them. God offers the world salvation; your judgment would condemn it. God says there is no death; your judgment sees but death as the inevitable end of life. God’s Word assures you that He loves the world; your judgment says it is unlovable. Who is right? For one of you is wrong. It must be so.

When you put it like that, Jesus, what else can I do but acquiesce to your logic? My vision of this world is so completely different from God’s Vision that I cannot do anything to bring it in alignment. All I can do is accept that I am totally wrong. To say that I am right would be saying that God is wrong. Am I going to try to school God now?

The most helpful practice I have been given lately (I think it came from Regina) is to remind myself to disregard appearances. I cannot accept God’s judgment of the world if I believe what I see with the body’s eyes, and hear with the body’s ears. I cannot accept God’s judgment if I insist on making my own judgments.

I find it helpful to frequently remind myself that what I see is the effect of a thought in my mind. It is so easy to forget this. If I confuse cause and effect, I use the effect to prove a lie is the truth. I met someone new. When I met him my mind did that little judgment trick where it placed him in a box. This box was labeled “not all that smart”. When he would talk to me I would see the error in his words, and his inability to clearly express himself, and the box would get smaller and smaller. He even looked like he wasn’t all that bright. Everything he said and did confirmed my judgment.

Then one day we were playing a game that required a lot of knowledge and reasoning to win. There were probably a hundred questions and he knew the answer to every one of them. Oops, wrong box! I had to take him out of that box and put him in another one. This is one smart guy. From that point on I began to hear his words differently. He started to sound smart to me, and in fact, I began to see his strange answers as being above my head rather than confused or unknowing.

I don’t actually know anything about him. I only see the proof of what I decide is true. If someone says something to me and I have decided that person is not very smart then the words I hear prove they are not very smart. If I think they are smart then I hear words that prove they are smart. This is true no matter what the words are.

If someone who is a genius says something that doesn’t make sense to me then I hear those words as so far ahead of me that I can’t understand them. How I see the person has nothing to do with him, and is actually a reflection of my thoughts about him, my judgment of him. My belief comes first and the appearance comes second and that appearance seems to prove my judgment. I use the appearance to convince me of what I already decided. Its crazy and its how the ego works.

I will not see the world as it is by regarding appearances as true, by believing what I see. I will not see the world as it is by learning to be a better judge. I will only learn to see the world as it is by not judging at all. I will see the real world as I lay aside my judgment and allow truth to take its place.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of Manual for Teachers 3-3-12

Day 63

11. HOW IS PEACE POSSIBLE IN THIS WORLD?

1 This is a question everyone must ask. Certainly peace seems to be impossible here. Yet the Word of God promises other things that seem impossible, as well as this. His Word has promised peace. It has also promised that there is no death, that resurrection must occur, and that rebirth is man’s inheritance. The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. God’s Word has promised that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible. But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises are to be accepted. What the world is, is but a fact. You cannot choose what this should be. But you can choose how you would see it. Indeed, you must choose this.

This paragraph reassures us of God’s promises in the face of a world that seems to be the opposite of all He promises. More often than not, I fail to see a peaceful world, and yet God says that this is possible. God loves the world and I have to wonder how this could be. I don’t love the world and often wish to be free of it. Obviously, there is a disconnect between what I see and what exists.

How do I get from the world I see to the world God loves? The world as it is a fact and cannot be changed, but how I see the world is variable and I can choose to see differently. I have already become very aware of how unreliable my vision is. I used to very often be depressed and when I was depressed I saw everything from a darkened and gloomy perspective. Then when the depression lifted, I saw things differently.

I used to have little regard for myself and everything that happened was colored by this low self-esteem. When I began to accept that nothing I do or say can determine my worth because that was established in my creation, the world I see changed. Where once I saw everything that happened as proof of my low self-worth, now I saw it as a school room with many opportunities to allow the Holy Spirit to help me choose God over ego.

A Course in Miracles has given me a very simple process to transform the world I see. It has given me the opportunity to perceive differently. Perception will never be truth, but it will get close if I allow about my mind to be healed through forgiveness. I am supposed to live a life of peace, joy, and happiness. If what I see does not create those effects then I am wrong about what I see. I ask the Holy Spirit to join me in the experience and to show me what He sees. I am asking for true Vision rather than ego vision.

I was listening to people talking about politics and it was making me feel irritable. I asked the Holy Spirit how to see this. He showed me that the irritation was not about the subject, or the people talking, but about my judgment and the meaning I was giving the conversation. Without that judgment it was just words, sometimes interesting, but just words. It’s amazing how quickly and dramatically the world changes when I let go of the meaning I give it. 

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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